1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an etchant for conductive materials and a method for manufacturing thin film transistor array panels using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are one of the most widely used types of flat panel displays. An LCD includes a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed between two panels that include field-generating electrodes. The LCD displays images by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer, which orients LC molecules in the LC layer to adjust the polarization of incident light.
An LCD arranged such that one panel has a plurality of pixel electrodes in a matrix and the other panel has a common electrode currently dominates the LCD market.
The LCD displays images by applying a different voltage to each pixel electrode. For this purpose, thin film transistors (TFTs), which have three terminals to switch voltages applied to the pixel electrodes, are connected to the pixel electrodes, gate lines that transmit signals for controlling the TFTs, and data lines that transmit voltages applied to the pixel electrodes, are formed on a thin film transistor array panel.
A TFT is a switching element for transmitting image signals from the data lines to the pixel electrodes in response to scanning signals from the gate lines.
The TFT is applied to an active matrix organic light emitting display as a switching element for controlling respective light emitting elements.
Given the increasing size of LCDs, a material having low resistivity is urgently required since the lengths of the gate and data lines also increase along with the LCD size.
Since a metal having low resistivity has weak chemical resistance, however, such a metal is vulnerable to an etchant. Accordingly, signal lines including a plurality of metal layers, at least one of which has low resistivity, often have defective profiles that include undercut and overhang.
Conductor patterns like the gate lines, data lines, and pixel electrodes of a TFT array panel are formed through deposition of conductive materials and photo-etchings. Often, the materials of the conductive patterns are different from each other. Generally, different materials require different etchants and etching conditions. Such variations of etchants and etching conditions complicate the manufacturing process and increase overall manufacturing costs.